The recordings of Sunday's MyHeritage genealogy seminar are now available to view for free at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/mhseminar. 

The MyHeritage genealogy seminar was presented at the MyHeritage headquarters in Israel on Sunday, October 29, 2017 and broadcast live internationally via Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Five renowned genealogical educators provided a variety of classes on genealogy research. The speakers included Rose Feldman, Garri Regev, Daniel Horowitz, Jessica Taylor and Tim Janzen.

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the recordings of all seven classes are now available to view in our webinar library for free. 

The Classes

The presentations include:

• Filling in the In-Between of the Jewish BMD by Rose Feldman
• Jewish Family Research Challenges by Garri Regev
• Introduction to the Use of Autosomal DNA Testing by Tim Janzen
• Google for Genealogy: Search Tricks to Tease Out Information by  Jessica Taylor
• Discover Your Family History with MyHeritage's Unique Technologies by Daniel Horowitz
• How to Pass Your Ancestors' Legacy to Your Grandchildren by Jessica Taylor
• Advanced Autosomal DNA Techniques used in Genetic Genealogy by Tim Janzen

The presentations will be available in the Legacy library as free replays. View over 50 other free videos in the Legacy library.

What do you need to look for once you have reached your brick wall? What is available and how do you find it? Learn how to think like a German and understand how to assess the needs of your German research to get the most out of it, from both sides of the ocean. You will understand how a typical German lived and made decisions. Our case study will show you step by step how to overcome a typical brick wall.

Join us and Luana Darby, MLIS, AG for the live webinar Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 2pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Before joining, please visit www.java.com to ensure you have the latest version of Java which our webinar software requires. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion. 

Download the syllabus

In preparation for the webinar, download the supplemental syllabus materials here.  

Or register for multiple webinars at once by clicking here.

Not sure if you already registered?

Login to view your registration status for this webinar (available for annual or monthly webinar subscribers).

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Luana Darby, MLIS, AG, is a Salt Lake City based genealogist who specializes in the U.S. Midwest, Palatine German, LDS, and American patriot research. Her love for genealogy came from listening to stories at her grandmother's knee while a young girl. She has been working with clients for over 20 years and is a frequent speaker at conferences, workshops, and institutes. She is past president of the Utah Genealogical Association, a board member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, a board member of the Genealogical Speakers Guilde, and an adjunct instructor of Family History at BYU-Idaho.

 

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
7. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
8. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

"Hidden" Tools (Beginner)

Legacy has a couple of nifty navigational tools and one informational tool on the Family View that new users don't see right away. If you hover your mouse in special spots on the screen you will see colored bars appear. These bars will let you rotate between spouses, siblings, and parents (if they have more than one set) without having to open those dialog boxes.

Use this bar to rotate through the husband's spouses. (click image to enlarge)

Use this bar to rotate through the siblings of the highlighted person. (click image to enlarge)

Use this bar to rotate through the wife's spouses.  (click image to enlarge)

Use this bar to rotate through other parents of the husband. (click image to enlarge)

Use this bar to rotate through other parents of the wife. (click image to enlarge)

There is one other helpful "hidden" popup on the Family View. 

(click image to enlarge)

When you click this colored box you get a very handy popup that shows you when the husband and wife were added to your file and when they were last modified including their marriage information. It will also tell you if they were imported into your file or if you added them by hand.

(click image to enlarge)

These "hidden" gems will save you time navigating through immediate family members and knowing when you added someone or last modified them is always interesting information. Here is a bonus hint. If you go to Search > Find > Detailed Search you can find people that were added or modified on, before, or after a certain date.

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them!   This Friday enjoy "Keeping Up with the Smiths and Joneses" by Gail Blankenau. If you're not a member,  remember the webinar previews are always free.

Keeping Up with the Smiths and Joneses

Sometimes in our ancestral research, we will come across a forebear with a common surname. It's tempting to fling our hands up in surrender and move on to another line; however, there are techniques that can help us to keep up with our own Smiths, Joneses and even those Johnsons.

 

About the Presenter

The recording of yesterday's webinar "Midwestern & Plains States Level Census Records” by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

Many Midwestern and Plains states have superb state census records. Learn about the indexes, the many personal details these censuses include, locating the censuses, and alternate sources. The lecture includes many specific examples from these enumerations, provides an overview of state censuses for Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, and indicates where they may be found. Does your state have a 1945 state census? The personal details vary but may include names of children, maiden names, military service, religious denomination, mother of how many children, occupation, value of real estate, and other helpful details.

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 38 minute recording of "Midwestern & Plains States Level Census Records” PLUS the after-webinar party is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. Or watch it at your convenience with an annual or monthly webinar membership. 

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 604 classes, 818 hours of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 2,791 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year (currently 50% off until August 20, 2017)
• Monthly membership: $9.95/month

Click here to subscribe.

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

• Filling in the In-Between of the Jewish BMD by Rose Feldman. October 29.
• Introduction to the Use of Autosomal DNA Testing by Tim Janzen. October 29.
• Google for Genealogy: Search Tricks to Tease Out Information by Jessica Taylor. October 29.
• Discover Your Family History with MyHeritage's Unique Technologies by Daniel Horowitz. October 29.
• How to Pass Your Ancestors' Legacy to Your Grandchildren by Jessica Taylor. October 29.
• Advanced Autosomal DNA Techniques used in Genetic Genealogy by Tim Janzen. October 29.
• Jewish Family Research Challenges by Garri Regev. October 29.
• Is this the End? Taking Your German Brick Walls Down Piece by Piece by Luana Darby and Ursula C. Krause. November 1.
• New York City Genealogical Research: Navigating Through The Five Boroughs by Michael L. Strauss, AG. November 8.
• Using Non-Population Schedules for Context and Evidence by Jill Morelli. November 10.
• British and Irish research: the differences by Brian Donovan. November 15.
• Research in Federal Records: Some Assembly Required by Malissa Ruffner, JD, CG. November 21.
• Understanding Alabama by Rorey Cathcart. November 29.
• Finding Your Roots in Catholic Records by Lisa Toth Salinas. December 6.
• I Thought He Was My Ancestor: Avoiding the Six Biggest Genealogy Mistakes by James M. Baker, PhD, CG. December 13.
• Finding Your Nordic Parish of Birth by Jill Morelli. December 15.
• The Law and the Reasonably Exhaustive (Re)Search by Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL. December 19.
• Palmetto Pride - South Carolina for Genealogist by Rorey Cathcart. December 20.
• Problems and Pitfalls of a Reasonably Shallow Search by Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL. December 27.

Print the 2017 webinar brochure here.

See you online!

I won't pretend researching Italian and Sicilian ancestry is easy. It isn't, but if you do your ground work in much the same way as you build a house, from solid foundations you will be off to a good start.

So here are a few top tips to consider:

• You will need to know the exact town your Italian or Sicilian ancestors came from
• Track those with the same surname or those that hail from the same place.
• Remember, in Italy women use their maiden name.
• Understand the history, economic, political and social aspects of researching in Italy & Sicily
• Understand the part that religion plays in the lives of your Italian ancestors
• Explore whether your place has been the focus of a thesis or other work.
• Become familiar with naming patterns - it is not fool proof but might help!

Before you start researching in earnest start reading and discovering the country; read books about the history and culture, explore the religious festivals. By doing these things you are building your research foundations. You are exploring your ancestor's country, their religion and what was important to them.

You probably know or have an idea of when your family entered the United States. Perhaps you have searched passenger lists but cannot find them. Here are a few more considerations:

• Did they enter through Canada and travel down into the United States?
• Look at the surname, is that the surname that left the homeland with? Yes, on occasions names changed in the new country. Play with the name. The sister of my grandmother, Rosanna Licata entered the US under her maiden name, despite being married to Giralomo Mancarella who was often recorded as Mangarella or Mancarelli. Explore the possibilities and record your positive and negative results.
• Perhaps the passenger list has your ancestor but the place of residence is simply recorded as Italy. What now? Look at others on the vessel. Whilst it is not absolute, it was common for people to travel together from a town rather than travel alone. Perhaps there was a migration scheme and a number of people from the same town went together.
• Once you have found them on the passenger list look to see who the person was they named as a contact. They are probably a relative or a friend of another relative. Remember Italians are all about family!

image courtesy of Julie Goucher

If you read the post Pathway to My Sicilian Heritage you will see that I mention the place my family hailed from, a small place called Sutera in Caltanissetta. Sutera is a rural community which meant the pool of people that an individual could marry was pretty small. What I found is that the same surnames kept popping up as individuals married and upon researching further I would discover the same surnames appearing in my research. Ironically my maternal line does something very similar in England!  Marrying family members or marrying into the family of in laws meant that what assets there were could be retained within an extended family group. 

Over a decade ago I discovered that Sutera had been the focus of a thesis by an academic in the United States. I ordered the book and eventually it arrived. I also contacted the author and asked her for any insights and did she have any material that had not made it into the published works. She did and since then we have corresponded several times. Explore that possibility. While Sutera is not large, it has been included in a number of books. Explore every possibility.

The biggest challenge is the language unless of course you are fluent. I find researching my Sicilian ancestry takes me three times as long as my English research, but I also yield more information from records. FamilySearch has done a sterling job of getting records online, for some I cannot see the actual record, but a transcription. I can then search for the record on other sites and read it, using the established transcription as a way of checking and double checking my reading.  I have been reasonably lucky and between three sites I can often research and fill in the gaps.  

Important sites for Italian and Sicilian research include:

• FamilySearch - and there is also some great material in the learning center.
• Ancestry - this is linked to the Italia site, but I find also searching the complete Ancestry suite of sites especially helpful. I located a Licata relative in the US before I had actually any proof he had migrated because I searched by removing the surname completely and inserting Sutera. The relative was located because I specified Sutera, he was actually recorded as a Licala. 
• Ancestors - Archives for Master Search - this is an amazing site and has material from 51 Italian state archives. It has many of the records that are on FamilySearch for Caltanissetta. 

Reach out to others that are either researching the same names or the same places or both. You never know where an email conversation will take you. Also consider a DNA test. Does a project exist? While surname DNA projects only exist at FamilyTree DNA (FTDNA) explore your options. Upload the results to Gedmatch. Italians are not especially interested in DNA, so it is not going to be a quick win, but test, because you never know!

Look for a naturalisation record. Sometimes they can be a font of information. The naturalisation record for Giralomo Mancarella confirmed that his wife, Rosanna died in New York in 1922, despite Rosanna death being recorded in Sutera. From that information I was able to send for her death certificate.

Here are a few of my favourite resources:

• Italian Genealogical Records: How to Use Italian Civil, Ecclesiastical and Other Records in Family History Research by Trafford R. Cole
• Our Italian Surnames by Joseph G Fucilla
• Finding Italian Roots by John Colletta
• Sicilian Genealogy & Heraldry by Louis Mendola 
• Italian American Podcast by Dolores Alfieri & Anthony Fasano
• Italian Research at FamilySearch & the FamilySearch Wiki
• Seeking Sicily by John Keahey
• Italian Surname Distribution Maps
• Guild of One-Name Studies
• Legacy Webinars 

Good luck getting started!

Learn more about your European ancestors in the webinar Tracing Your European Ancestors.

Julie is the writer and developer of the successful "Book of Me, Written by You" program, which has been popular as a series of workshops delivered to both professionals and historians, in addition to undertaking research for some clients. Julie's book Tracing your European Ancestors is to be published in 2016 by Pen and Sword Books. When Julie is not working or researching her own ancestry she can be found reading, exploring the many National trust properties within the South of England or writing at her blog – Anglers Rest.

© Julie Goucher 2017

Related articles

Pathway to my Sicilian Heritage

I told you a little bit about Ignatius Grantham in "Playing Hide and Seek with Records from Burned Counties." Since Ignatius was a cad I of course wanted to know more about him. On 08 January 1820 he claimed 401.72 acres in Jackson County, Mississippi. The Pascagoula River runs right through the middle so this was prime real estate. Ignatius didn’t hang on to it though. He assigned it to John Williams on 18 February 1820 and then Williams turned around and assigned it to Robert Carr Lane on 20 February 1820. Here is a map:

(click image to enlarge)

Screenshot taken from the Bureau of Land Management’s online Plat
Image files, Section 2, Township 4S, Range 7W, St. Stephens

I ordered  the land entry file from the National Archives and it is 47 pages long.[1] Over the years this piece of land had some title issues. Apparently after it was assigned the patent was never filed so it looked like Ignatius still owned it. What is interesting was a “motion for decree pro confesso” filed 11 August 1902 in the case of R. Roberts vs. Ignatius Grantham et als. [sic]. I had to look that up (thank you Black’s Law Dictionary). It means the defendant (Ignatius Grantham) had not answered the complaint so the court treated it as though he confessed to the charges. In that motion it states,

“That said Ignatus [sic] Grantham cannot be found in the State of Mississippi after diligent inquiry and complainant does not know and cannot ascertain or diligent inquiry of Ignatus Grantham is alive or dead, and if he left any heirs.”

This is kind of funny because in 1902 Ignatius would have been about 113 years old. I guess it was a legal thing that they had to do and they did mention possible heirs. 

This little tidbit was in the file too.  Talk about a seriously burned county! I knew about the fire in 1875 but I didn’t know it had burned two times prior to that.

(click image to enlarge)

The moral of the story is, if you find a patent or warrant on the Bureau of Land Management’s website you need to order the land entry file to get the “rest of the story.” I will tell you that it is cheaper and faster if you have a local researcher pull the records for you at the National Archives than it is to order the records directly from them.

[1] Survey of 23 October 1827, Ignatius Grantham claim, Mississippi no, 135; Private Land Claim Files, 1789-1908; Record Group 49; Records of the Bureau of Land Management; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

New feature! (Beginner)

The developers have slipped in a new feature. The Relationship Report now has a filter so that you can tell Legacy you only want to see your BLOOD relatives. Before you get started, you will need to set your relationships. Go to TOOLS > SET RELATIONSHIPS. Normally you will set the relationships to yourself.

(click image to enlarge)

Once you have set the relationships the report will become active. Go to REPORTS > OTHER REPORTS > RELATIONSHIP REPORT. You will see a new checkbox for "Only include blood-relatives."

(click image to enlarge)

And now my report only shows the people that I am blood related to.

(click image to enlarge)

This is a great tool for those researchers using DNA. 

Watch the Video

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Many Midwestern and Plains states have superb state census records. Learn about the indexes, the many personal details these censuses include, locating the censuses, and alternate sources. The lecture includes many specific examples from these enumerations, provides an overview of state censuses for Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, and indicates where they may be found. Does your state have a 1945 state census? The personal details vary but may include names of children, maiden names, military service, religious denomination, mother of how many children, occupation, value of real estate, and other helpful details.

Join us and Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA for the live webinar Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 2pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Before joining, please visit www.java.com to ensure you have the latest version of Java which our webinar software requires. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion. 

Download the syllabus

In preparation for the webinar, download the supplemental syllabus materials here.  

Or register for multiple webinars at once by clicking here.

Not sure if you already registered?

Login to view your registration status for this webinar (available for annual or monthly webinar subscribers).

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Paula considers herself fortunate to be an internationally recognized genealogical educator, researcher and consultant focusing on unusual resources, manuscripts, methodology, and analyzing records. She also specializes in Native American research. She loves to interact with her clients and audiences. She is a long-time course coordinator and instructor for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh and an instructor for Ancestry Academy. Her lecturing experience includes the Federation of Genealogical Societies and National Genealogical Society conferences and seminars in many states and Canada. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the Minnesota Genealogical Society (MGS), and is a former officer of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and is the Past President of the Northland Chapter of APG. She initiated the MGS education committee and classes and was one of the founding members of the MGS Library. She co-chaired the FGS 2001, 2011, and 2013 conferences. Her ancestors came to the U.S. from eight ancestral countries. She has researched onsite from coast to coast at and has written for, FGS FORUM, NGS Magazine, Family Tree Magazine, New England Ancestors, Minnesota Genealogist, findmypast.com, was editor of the former FGS Conference News Blog and currently has her own educational website and blog at http://genealogybypaula.com.

 

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
7. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
8. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them!   This Friday enjoy "Beyond the Docket Books: Digging for Gold in Probate Packets" by Chris Staats. If you're not a member,  remember the webinar previews are always free.

Beyond the Docket Books: Digging for Gold in Probate Packets

Probate records provide an intimate window through which to view the lives of our ancestors, revealing information about them that make their identities unique. 

 

About the Presenter